


A Promise Broken

by Unicornsfartglitter



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Sad Daryl, cursing, good guy Negan, slight self harm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-06-15
Packaged: 2019-05-23 13:26:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14935134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unicornsfartglitter/pseuds/Unicornsfartglitter
Summary: Daryl promised himself to never get close to another again. Then comes Negan, their newest civilian who works his way into Daryl’s heart.





	A Promise Broken

**Author's Note:**

> Comments always welcomed and adored. Writing ain’t easy.

Daryl’s pa beat him every night leaving gashes across his skin that would never truly heal, every time he saw the scars he was reminded he wasn’t strong enough to fight back. Everyone at the prison looked at him like he was survivor, a provider and protector to them but each touch of congratulations made him flinch and reminded him he wasn’t like these people even if they all ran from walkers.

People kept dying, Daryl would get close to a handful and then they were gone. It was easier to run from people than the walkers because after Beth he promised himself he wouldn’t care if another died unless it was Carl, Carol, Judith, or Rick. Sure he loved his whole group but he detached from the ones he was getting closer to so it wouldn't matter as much.

Carl died, he watched him brave to the last second and even managed his goodbyes in steady handwriting. Time to time Daryl would pull his note out to read it, his fingers trailing over the last remnants of the most recent person he loved that perished. Rick killed the leader of the Saviors and they prepared for the next one because they all learned by now. Nobody was good anymore.

Rick was on a run with Aaron, Daryl was in the woods hunting and when he came home he dropped his deer on the floor when he saw a stranger.

“Well hello there cutie bag us a deer?”

Daryl crossed his arms taking in the tall stranger, he looked too clean and wore tight jeans and a leather jacket even though it was too hot. A bat wrapped in barbwire was propped on his shoulder like it was molded to him, part of him. 

“You going to sit there and judge or tell me your name?”

The man extended out his arm and reluctantly he shook it. Suddenly he was pushed into the man's chest as he pinched his ass, Daryl was angry at himself when he let us the frailest squeak in surprise.

“Negan you just got here and you are already making me doubt my decision.”  
Rick hit his arm hard making him let go of Daryl.

“I was just having some fun, this beauty wouldn’t tell me his name.”

Rick scoffed shaking his head. “That's Daryl and if you don’t want a bolt between your eyes I suggest you keep your hands off. No matter how hard that might me.” 

Daryl looked at his friend angrily because he was barely suppressing a full out laugh but he was beaming in a smile.

“Come on, I’ll show you around but the first few nights we’re babysitting you.”

It didn’t take long to realize Negan was a good guy, he had survived by himself shuffling house to house and the leather kept him from being bit, once he had a group but Terminus murdered them. They all were silent when two months after meeting the man that only showed a hardened core he cried telling them the story. He was relieved to find out they were killed and Daryl saw a self hatred he knew all to well etched into Negan’s face as he admitted he couldn't save them and ran, he had no ammo or people to help him fight back.

Like so many other nights Daryl couldn’t sleep and went outside to the porch to see Negan with bags under his own eyes smoking. The man acknowledged him as he lit another cigarette.

“I know I should slow my roll, this shits getting harder to find but damn if I can stop.” Negan tapped on his pack of smokes and Daryl understood that as well.

“You couldn’t stop them.” Daryl said it before he could think that he was getting too close to someone new.

“I know but it’s not that easy, I can’t forgive myself.”

A cigarette was offered to him and he took it, a tinge of something new hitting him when Negan started his lighter and lit his cigarette or him.

“That’s how it it now, even before I think. There’s always something you can’t forgive yourself for.”

Negan touched Lucille thinking of his wife. “Yeah, you're right.”

Nothing else was said that night as they stared out until the sun rose but Daryl didn’t object when Negan edged closer to him through the night.

Negan isn't someone you could explain to a stranger, he cussed and beat a man dead with fiery rage, not sickened by Lucille making bones crack and blood splatter. Later after a long shower his angry demeanor would turn gentle to rock Judith and read her a book. He also respected the dead, painting their names on the gate of Alexandria with his best writing and more than once Darl saw him peer at a picture of Carl or the one salvaged of Lori on the mantle. It was like he knew the lost ones and was deeply disturbed when he found out how Glenn died.

Like Daryl he didn’t sleep, making a cradle for Maggie’s unborn child or whittling wooden toys for Judith or other kids in Alexandria. He smoked too much, got lucky and found enough liquor to sip on most nights but Daryl found himself joining him more, learning how to carve wood himself as they passed the gnawing fear of sleep away with productive time.

Daryl opened up to him, laughing at his jokes and accepting the touches. He didn’t notice the cravings for attention start, how he leaned in or licked his lips when he saw Negan’s backside. A year passed and Daryl made another friend, one who he would grieve if he lost his life.

The seasons turned to winter and chimneys had to be used for warmth, it was a gamble so more guards were put on the wall. The nights that weren’t as cold the Alexandrians huddled together except the few houses that had children. 

Daryl smoked a cigarette watching Negan split wood, his torso stretched to expose muscle underneath and Daryl didn't even try to stop his staring, it wasn’t like Negan knew.

Negan swung the ax harder jutting out his ass before straightening up and looking over the pile. Daryl always looked at him when he worked hard. Cracking his neck he stretched his arms out showing off a more muscle and drinking some water making sure some spilled down his white shirt, it was cold as balls out but damn if he wouldn’t strut his stuff for Daryl waiting for him to pull his head out of his ass. He could only sigh when he looked Daryl's way and his friend finally found interest with something that wasn’t his toned body. Negan shook his head, he couldn’t push or Daryl would run.

Pete was evil, no one liked him, his wife and children’s bruises weren’t hidden but everytime Rick or anyone asked she denied it. Sam ran away from people anytime they approached him like he knew what they would ask, like he was trained to do so. Daryl felt ready to explode when the kid emerged from his house with a black eye. 

The next day Daryl saw that prick kid Ron, he didn’t like him but he was limping clutching his stomach in pain. His ribs were broken Daryl knew and it was the final straw, nobody liked the kid but he didn't deserve it and Daryl cut him off on the sidewalk. “Just tell me Pete’s hurting you and I’m going to take care of it.” Ron didn't answer but he looked down and that was all Daryl needed to see.

The day was long, Negan had repaired a few aging refrigerators and routine maintenance. He hadn’t seen Daryl all day but that wasn't too odd. A body slamming against a house was and Negan knew it was Pete’s. ‘He’s beating on his family.’ Negan thought and ran to the back of the house but instead saw a bloody mouthed Pete being slammed against the siding. “If you ever hit your family again it will be the last thing you do!” Pete screamed as his arm being snapped, Daryl looked feral spitting in his face and shoving at the twisted arm. At least it was his left and not his surgeon arm. “Daryl.”

Negan was brute but he helped Rick and Michonne tow the line with discrepancies and Daryl bit his thumb acting as if he was wrong. “I can’t Negan. He’s beating them and everyone is looking the other way and Ron’s busted up, Sam’s looking worse these days too and fuck Jessie because this is on her but I’m not taking it anymore!”

Negan looked at Pete’s arm, smelled the liquor and Daryl smirked when he cried out in pain when Negan punched him once in the face. “You fell because you're a drunk bastard. That’s what you’re going to tell Denise then you’re leaving your family and cleaning up, no more alcohol. If you give me or Daryl shit, stay with your family or keep drinking I’m going to find an abandoned warehouse, strap you to a chair and starve you and maybe when you wish for death I’ll let a walker end you if I’m feeling generous got it?”

Pete shook his head yes in understanding and stumbled off. Relief washed over Negan and he wanted to thank Daryl for standing up but he couldn’t because instead the archer clenched his hands at his sides and stared at the house. “Daryl?”

Daryl flinched when he pulled him to him but let him give a hug. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I know.” Daryl said out of breath.

“Then why are you freaking out?”

“I don’t get it, he has his family still, everything's so messed up and yet he still drinks and hurts them, the ones he should die for.”

“Hey it’s not okay but we can’t understand that.”

Daryl stayed pliant in his arms but he hugged him still waiting for his breathing to even out and for him to become less tense. When after several minutes it happened he took Daryl's hand. “Come on, let’s go home.”

They shared a house with Rick and MIchonne and Judith. Negan spent many nights sleeping in his room next to Daryl wishing he could be with him instead. “Let’s get you a warm shower.”

Negan had to push him to sit on the toilet and he turned the heat on. Daryl stared hard at the tiling in a daze, it didn't take a genius to know Daryl had issues. It took Negan’s months to be acknowledged by the archer and many more to get what the man’s idea of casual conversation to be geared his way.

“Come one Daryl, showers ready.” Daryl pinched his legs, his knuckles bloody and he didn’t budge.

Dropping to his knees Negan looked up at him. “You were right to do it, we all wanted to. You snapped and that’s a good thing.”

“My pa did it to me.” Daryl rasped, his lips tightened then informing Negan he wasn’t supposed to know this.

“All the more reason that you were the one to do it, we won’t let it happen anymore. You didn’t stop him because it happened to you, you stopped him because it was wrong.”

Daryl snapped out of his haze then, Negan looked up at him open and honest. Why did it hurt to beat Pete? Why did it open him up to all he went through? “I’m not a good person.” His pa’s yelling screamed inside his head reminding him he was nothing, no one would care for him because he was stupid, meaningless.

Negan laughed daily, at his own stupid jokes or because of someone else's. He was a happy, confident person. The volume of his laughs ranged from soft to loud and boisterous, sometimes fakely but mostly amused. The laugh Daryl heard right this was indicative of him hearing something outrageous. “Bullshit Daryl, you're the best person here I know.”

‘It’s a lie.’ His mind screamed again but honest was something else Daryl knew Negan to be and that’s what he saw when he looked down. Somehow it made him feel better and he stood up to test the waters temperature for himself. Just Negan laughing, showing him he thought Daryl was good even if Daryl didn’t believe it loosened him up. 

Negan wasn’t a shy man, flirting openly with any man or women who would listen. He went through girlfriends and messed around with Jesus with pride. Daryl envied that he was confident unlike himself. Sometimes he saw those eyes scan him over as well and it had to be his imagination how Negan’s face softened more, his eyes opened with light when he looked at him exclusively.

Negan stalked over bold as ever and rubbed at his clothed waist. “Need some help undressing?”

Scowling Daryl slapped his hand away. “Stop it you pig.”

Negan laughed then shut the door. Daryl touched his ugliest scar when he pulled his shirt off. Negan wouldn’t ever want to see him naked, he was too ugly.

Days and nights mended until Dark found himself always looking for Negan at his side, most times he was right there already. That damn smile in place checking him head to toe, Daryl still felt small and ugly but he stared at his scars longer seeing them as just marks of his past.

Only when times were desperate did he burn his skin marking it of his own choosing, Negan showed him one night how to hold his knife and cut a curve into wood, a few carves later and Negan took his knife to rub a finger across his healed burns, his skin prickled with ghosted touches but there was nothing said, just concerned eyes letting him know it wasn’t liked.

The urge to burn came late at night after a nightmare, walkers were a cakewalk after his pa. He shuddered awake pulling his shirt from his skin feeling like the stabs were real and his foot hit a boots, a simple pair but they were more than that. They were a gift from Negan, new and they fit just right. He took a drag from a lit cigarette and looked at his ugly wrist. ‘Negan wouldn’t like it.’ He thought and with that he walked down the steps cigarette in hand.

Negan was on the porch staring at the sky, diamonds in the dark that seemed unreal. They shouldn’t exist in such an ugly world but they did, just like Daryl's eyes. Smiling he saw Daryl there, the already lit cigarette an unusual sign but Daryl's frowning face turned to a glow when he looked his way.

“Bad night?” Negan asked with concern.

It wasn’t a bad night, not anymore so Daryl stepped down to where he was and and looked at the sky. “Not anymore.”

A huff escaped Negan’s lips and he lit his own cigarette not knowing they both were looking at the same star, not the brightest or biggest but just one star out of many. “I always thought stars were the most beautiful thing in the world but boy was I fucking wrong.”

Daryl’s sight drifted down to watch Negan who still had his neck craned up. “So what is the most beautiful thing?”

“Your eyes or you, I can’t decide.” Negan stated still stretching upwards.

Maybe it should have been a epiphany, fireworks in his heart, maybe even denial or anger because Dixon’s weren’t beautiful and especially not him out of all of them but Daryl looked back up eyeing that same star again, the one Negan never stopped his gaze upon. It was okay because to one person he was beautiful and it had to be true if Negan out of all said it.

“You're not so bad yourself.”

Negan did look at him then shaking his head. “Really Dixon?” It was what he called Dark when playful, I speak my heart and that’s all I get?’

“Was that the closest you could get to Shakespeare? Because it could have been better.” He suppressed a laugh as Negan pushed him off the porch steps and ran after him. 

Three houses down Negan pinned him to a tree looking at his blues like they were a portrait worthy of being in a museum. “I’m going to kiss you now because I’ve wanted to forever and if you don’t want that to happen speak now.”

Daryl couldn’t say a thing. Lips met his seeking entrance that he allowed, he had never been kissed before but he met the tongue letting it glide back to mingle. So many wounds in his life had gaped open and unhealing but an palm against his chest had his heart beating harder and with it he started to heal.

“Your the best damn part of waking up in this life.” Negan whispered against his lips. Daryl soaked in what Negan was saying but he had to disagree because to him it was the opposite.

The crickets chirped, soft moans of walkers behind steel but Daryl couldn’t hear any of it as Negan took his hand and led him to their house. He wouldn’t be sleeping alone tonight, no fear overcame him of Negan taking advantage. Daryl would fall sleep being held by Negan and in the morning would find himself content with a man when he promised never to get close to another again.


End file.
